On November 8, at the Artissimo Concert Hall, the Hermann Brown Foundation invites violinist Elīna Bukša to a concert “Dedication to the Bahamas”. In a conversation, Liene Jakovleva met with the musician to talk about this very personal program and feelings at a time when each meeting with the audience in person is especially welcome and appreciated.
Liene Jakovļeva: Elīna Bukša with her solo program alone on stage, without pianist, only violin and Elīna.
Elīna Bukša: Yes, this time it is. I really wanted to talk in person and just be with myself and the violin, because this time makes us all think about the artist’s mission. I have a feeling I need to talk even more through music. You have to try to convey your emotions to the listeners, and I very, very much hope that the Sunday evening concert will take place. Of course, uncertainty gives a very special, even a little painful mood.
We live from day to day, and it is everywhere and with everyone.
Even those musicians who manage to play perhaps a little more than others also have problems and some kind of weird sense of risk.
It feels like a knife blade, but let’s think and hope for the light! How do you intend this tribute to the Bahamas to survive with the listeners?
Half a year ago, I discovered an absolutely stunning piece – sonatas by composer Rodion Shchedrin for violin solo “Echo”. I am very interested in Shchedrin as a composer and before a long time I listened very intensively to his ballets, operas and got a little deeper into his work. I realized that this composer is very close to my heart. In Shchedrin’s music you can hear a lot of reflections from his colleagues and friends Shostakovich, Prokofiev, even Kanchel. In my opinion, it is very rare for one person to get all the good qualities of their colleagues, and I hear something special about it all.
How is music discovered?
It is such an unpredictable chain of events. It always happens somehow spontaneously or vice versa, like when it’s time. In the spring, I had time and tried not to spend it on a mild depression, but to approach those composers and the music I always left, because I always had to play something specific. I gave myself that time, and, to be honest, Shchedrin’s music isn’t the most relaxing, so my brain and all my concentration were extremely focused throughout the spring months. I came to the sonata “Echo”, which is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach. There are many Bach parts and sonata quotes in this charming work, which lasts 23 to 25 minutes.
Even if they are not specific quotes, but harmonious games and small reflections – “shards of glass”.
By analyzing this work, which an artist must always do, because it is quite complex music, we can discover it. In the concert program, I always like to combine contemporary music with classical or baroque.
I think listeners like it too!
Yes, and you know, it also helps the listener, because I think we need to “warm up” the listener’s hearts and ears a bit. The Echo sonata will be intertwined with Bach’s compositions, as the beginning will be dedicated to the Bahamas, followed by the Echo sonata and finally the Bach. There are various parallels that I would like to talk to the audience in person.
Do you also want to tell the public about it?
I would like to tell you before the concert, because I think we need to prepare the listeners. It seems that I have various interesting thoughts and also personal parallels.
Lately, I’ve found that it’s very healthy to talk before a concert, although it’s not easy.
You have to learn to do this, especially if they are very personal programs and it is not possible to print a description. In fact, it is such a very healthy prelude, because when you talk, relax.
Is the Artissimo Concert Hall a well-known space?
Yes, very familiar. I had to play here, be in the places of listeners, and just have a coffee while visiting. They are already home, and I am very happy that the evening will be so personal and narrow, because I think the program is suitable for this kind of conceptual hall. I am glad that I will also be able to see the faces of the listeners!
What do you have Bach? Alphabet or, as the years go by, does it become easier or harder to understand and find the right keys to Bahu?
Bach is changing and I am changing. Of course, this music is endless, and the time you invest in learning it sometimes does not bear fruit. You have to find the right moment in life to focus on this music. Not everyone can. Playing Bahu is especially difficult for emotional and extroverted people like me, because you have to find your inner state.
When it comes to the current state of the world, I am neither the first nor the last musician to turn to the Bahamas right now, because I find it easy.
Just like going to church and being there in silence, so is Bach’s music. It is rational in a way, despite its spirituality, and it helps me to think, to think calmly without a quick whirl. Bach’s music has the power to fall into a nest of peace, to let it swim, and at that moment you are happy!
Have you come to Riga with your Domenico Montana violin? And how does she like Bach?
It seems to me that Bach suits her very much and resonates very well with this music. In general, she loves Baroque, Renaissance music and other composers, such as Jean-Philippe Ramo. (laughs) She’s traveled a lot at different times.
Elīna, you said in an interview in April that a garden saves a little sad thought. How are you now?
Yes, it was such a very special moment when I could dig into the ground and forget a little.
The garden is still very relevant, and it really helps me.
Now, of course, it’s winter and nothing is done, but I have a lot of roses in the garden, so I mainly take care of the rose bushes.
In the summer, however, was the concert life, which was a bit renewed and was more or less intense, able to save you from everything?
Yes, some things were saved, because there were just very welcoming concert organizers who moved a lot of things from indoors to outdoors. Of course, 70% didn’t happen, but those who did, they were very special because internally they had a completely different feeling. I was thirsty for the stage, just hungry for the moment and the music and the reactions of the people, and so it seems to me that in fact all the concerts that have taken place have been very special in a way.
Were they chamber music concerts?
There was both solo and chamber music, they have been different projects. Until recently, it was Bach’s Second Party in a very special, small museum in Brussels. It seems to me that every moment now has a much greater value.
You also said in the spring that you are not a special fan of virtual concerts. Has anything changed in this regard?
However, such things do not change. I already wish I could be different, but unfortunately, as I am, I am.
Of course, concert video recordings are enduring values, but the world seems to have gone mad and obsessed with it.
We also see a lot of fraudsters using this situation as a pedestal, pretending to have something to say. It’s a little scary, but it happens in any area. It seems to me that the listener has to train his ears first and only then his eyes.
It makes me a little disappointed that visuality becomes more important than sound.
On the other hand, of course, we live in a time when all this is extremely relevant and the artist’s dress is more important as a performance. In my circle of friends, we often discuss it and treat it all with humor. It is easy to assume that such things exist.
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